Just curious if anyone out there has played with PhoneGap at all. Longtime student Marcus pointed this out to me today and it looks interesting. If you have, pop some comments up with your thoughts / whats possible / etc. This is probably the 3rd or 4th export-to-everything type platform I’ve been emailed about in the past few months, but I think this is the first thats built around HTML5, so thats interesting.
TGIS-morning!
We released a whooper of a newsletter yesterday and of course I forgot to mention it here on the blog. So most of you already know about everything below but in case ya don’t….
We’ve got an amazing CSS 3 course out now. This is taught by Lawrence Turton who also did that fantastic HTML5 Basics course and Jquery tutorial. You can find more details and a 45 minute preview right here! Isn’t 45 minutes kinda long for a preview? Well not when the entire course is 9 hours!
And our incredible template author Tibi has released two new templates. The Signal Static Video Template (my fav, love the static effect) and a Slideshow Template with Password Protection. Also you can now purchase EVERY template of his that we sell for $150. Just visit the template index here, and that offer will be on top.
And we have a 20% off coupon running for pretty much anything on the site, that code is M1216409, and will be good for the next 10 days.
Last up, Apple approved Kingpin Pinball for the iPad! If you want to check out some of the gameplay, I uploaded some right here.
Have a good weekend!
All day AND into the night. Check it out below, this whole series of animated commercials is beautiful…
If you want to pick it apart frame by frame, here’s a link to some higher rez downloadable versions
Just goes to show ya, sometimes the simpler, the better. This “motion poster” (click below to see the actual motion) feels fresh to me, and ALL it is really is looping fire and a fade in. The interactivity is only at the bottom, almost unseen, so this keeps the feel of a movie poster. The previous one of these I’d seen was for Conan (check it out here) but it misses the mark a bit.
Lab link here. And whats awaiting you in this version…
Huh. I thought that MovieClip.isPlaying was already around for a bit. Maybe in my dreams.
Also thanks to Ma-Ma-Mario yesterday for pointing out a cool Minority Report style Flash interface. Here’s a link to how it was done, and some video of it….
Whoa. Just noticed that was done waaaay back in ’09. Practically decades ago =)
This article (and tutorial) is the first I’ve heard of face recognition using Flash, although I’m not sure why I’m at all surprised considering I have no idea about the complexities of what goes into recognizing a face. So if some other coding language can do it, than why not Actionscript too. I’m guessing the algorithm looks for eyes first. Possibly sexy eyes first, then normal eyes, then lazy eyes, and so on in a hot-or-not ordering.
If you want to try it out, here’s the demo from the tutorial. And as the conclusion of the lesson notes, it ain’t perfect, but pretty darn cool when it works.
Its that time again. I submitted my app to Apple and now all I can do is wait. Every time I get a little less nervous about the pending approval or disapproval from their reviewers. I’ve gotten an equal amount of yay’s and nay’s but every app has eventually made it into the store with no more than a few minor tweaks. But of course its always a little nerve racking to spend weeks or months on something and then have to wait around.
If you happen to be thinking of an app idea or currently working on one, I wanted to point out that Apple recently updated their approval guidelines document. Nothing jumps out to me as walled garden-ish, and I thought some of their broader themes were VERY good. Here’s some cut and paste of my favs…
Think about that first one. Useful OR providing lasting entertainment. I like the distinction because their are plenty of apps that do one or the other, but not both. A to-do list app isn’t really entertaining and an arcade game isn’t really useful.
Also I like that last bullet point about apps presenting new questions. That has an air of mystery to it, and I don’t think they are implying they will encounter some new app that challenges them in a crude or adult way, because I’m sure those type apps have all come and gone. I read it like this: with ALL the technology in that little device, there is the potential for an application that really questions whether the person using it, SHOULD use it. Like the Spiderman theme, “with great power comes great responsibility”.
If there’s anyapp out there now that you feel skirts this line, feel free to drop a comment below. Or if you just want to toss out some ideas for apps you feel COULD present new questions, go for it. For example, does anyone use FourSquare? I’ve always felt a “checking in” app like that could be used by a super villain for some dangerous purpose. Or what if an app like FourSquare ALSO told you the mood of the people in that location. Would you avoid somewhere if say, 20% of the people felt angry or upset. Or if just 1 person felt violent, would you stay away. Hmmm.
Love to hear some thoughts.
Wow, the title says it all doesn’t it. Here she is…
And the full (many hour) CSS3 Tutorial will be available as soon as it arrives on my end! Lawrence is busy finishing it now. You guys might remember him from his past lesson on HTML5.
Enjoy!
My friends at Toon Boom just tipped me off to this article about Toon Boom training here in Georgia. Here’s some cut and paste from the full article…
The Georgia Entertainment Media Work Ready Region, the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Department of Economic Development (Digital Entertainment Office) are pleased to announce and provide Toon Boom Software Training for 2 weeks during the summer. With this industry expected to grow to more than $555 Billion dollars by 2015 in the United States, the leadership of the Georgia Entertainment Media Region are vested in making sure industry can excel in Georgia and will sponsor the three (3) two week courses priced at $2500 each that will be offered FREE to those referred by their employers. The course will be taught on Animate Pro from a Toon Boon instructor flown in from Toronto, Canada.
And I was just talking to an art director here in Atlanta working on an animated show for FX (I’ll let ya guess which show), and we joked around about his crew using Flash because it crashed on them constantly. Of course its a tough sell to get anyone to switch software midway through production but I did tell him they need to look into Animate for his next show. Maybe an animated episode of Dexter with guest Casey Anthony. Sigh…. our legal system.
